Pomegranates
by Kapuahi
Summary: Sakura's feelings evolve over the years regarding both pomegranates and Kakashi.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So I wrote a thing. It's my first KS fic and the longest fic I've ever written by far. It's beta'd only by me so there's probably something wrong in there somewhere. But yeah, I hope you enjoy it! It was getting stupid long for a one-shot so I split it into a couple parts and decided to just bite the bullet with this first bit.

* * *

The first time Sakura tasted a pomegranate she was a freshly minted genin and Kakashi was still the omnipotent leader of an awestruck young Team Seven. It was a flawless summer day on Konoha's training grounds and Kakashi, as per usual, was lazily watching the three run through their chakra control exercises. He sat under a particularly comfortable-looking tree, avidly reading a certain trashy novel and slowly working his way through a pomegranate, one seed at a time.

"Again, you two," he called in a bored voice to Naruto and Sasuke, who were starting to show their hours of exertion. Sakura, her chakra control already leaps and bounds beyond her teammates', ran over to the three Kakashi had situated himself under.

"You're dismissed for today," he said in a bored voice. "Want some?" Kakashi proffered a few seeds to his student, eyes still focused on the engrossing novel. He handed her a few precious arils and she bit down. As the sweet-tart-bitter taste filled her mouth Sakura couldn't hide the twist her mouth made in response, nor the blush that filled her cheeks and crept dangerously close to her pink roots, accelerated by her mounting embarrassment at her childish palate. But Kakashi just shrugged it off the way he seemed to with everything.

"Mah, there's more for me…"

* * *

By the time Sakura was sixteen, she had been promoted to chuunin under the capable tutelage of Senju Tsunade, and was poised to become tokubetsu-jounin. She had not yet lost her unyielding hope that her childhood love would return, and she had grown to care for Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi as their close friend and confidante. Every time Team Kakashi returned from a mission, she would host her boys and feed them their favorite foods in celebration of cheating death once again. Raspberry cheesecake and lemon tea for her, beef ramen for Naruto, coffee and noodles for Sai, and miso soup with eggplant and a pomegranate fresh from the market for Kakashi. Though she prepared all the other food, she left the pomegranate whole. A busy medic-nin barely had enough time to cook, let alone painstakingly break down the fruit into glistening seeds; whereas Kakashi seemed to have infinite time and patience for the task, peeling it piece by piece and eating one seed at a time, watching his grown students banter the night away.

* * *

After the war ended, word of Kakashi's incredible power and Sakura's miracles spread far and wide in the Five Great Nations – and all the others besides – and as mission partners, they became Konoha's two most in-demand ninja. Sakura, the last of her team to turn twenty after the war, was finally a full jounin, promoted for her feats during the war. Their first mission as a team of two came exactly two hours after Sakura received a messenger hawk with a missive signed by Morino Ibiki himself, inviting her to join ANBU. Sakura, good nin that she was, didn't let on to her partner at the gates her deep discomfort at being asked to use her medical knowledge for even more immoral purposes. She arrived two hours after their agreed-upon meeting time, just as Kakashi arrived from his visit to the cenotaph. They set out for Snow County at a determined pace, to her surprise, the younger nin kept pace with her team leader for the first time in her 6-year career. She followed him doggedly, sublimating her roiling anxiety and pride into a quickening pace.

Sakura didn't know how exactly she managed to carry Kakashi all the way back from Sound. All she remembered was the desperation that consumed her as she downed enemy after enemy with brutally efficient fists as her partner lay helpless under a nearby tree, Mangekyou dripping blood. She dumped him somewhat unceremoniously at the hospital and barely made it to her office's cot before she too passed out from chakra exhaustion. When she woke up almost a full day later, she found herself tucked under her blanket, with a glass of water on her bedside table. She laughed softly, appreciative of Shizune's attentive kindness and resolving to take a drunk Tsunade off the older woman's hands at the next village festival.

An icy realization filled Sakura as she sat on her tiny cot behind her desk – Shizune hadn't left a note regarding her partner's health. She leapt up, putting her white coat on in one fluid motion, and raced to the room Kakashi usually stayed in, when he could be convinced or sedated enough to stay. Panting, she ran into the room, lab coat flapping, and found the old bastard sleeping peacefully, blanket tucked firmly around his face. Though her first instinct was to yell at him for being so inconsiderate as to almost die on her, the relief she felt was so powerful that she found it enough just to sit by her teammate as he slept on.

After a few hours of keeping vigil by her partner's beside, Sakura grew restless and wandered off in search of something to do when he woke up, leaving a short note by his bedside informing him of both her survival and her whereabouts. After darting through Kakashi's window to fetch the rest of his Icha Icha collection and some fresh clothes – hospital stay essentials – Sakura made her way to the market, figuring that Kakashi's favorite fruit would cheer him up at least temporarily. Or at least make him stay put while he ate it.

When Sakura arrived with her bounty, she found Kakashi awake and looking vaguely uncomfortable as Tsunade hectored him for overreaching the Sharingan yet again. Upon hearing her protégé's footfalls, the Hokage stopped abruptly in her lecture and wheeled to face Sakura, hands on hips. The younger woman was unfazed, greeting her mentor with crossed arms. Tsunade's expression softened, taking Sakura off guard, and she began to leave the room.

"I've reassigned your shifts for the next three days so you can recover. Get some rest because I need you in good shape. I don't want any argument, and I don't want to see you set foot in this hospital unless you are right here."

Sakura was frozen for a moment in shock, as she had been expecting a fit of rage over her own negligence from her fiery mentor. The door to Kakashi's hospital room slammed shut and Sakura jumped, snapped out of her brief reverie by the sound.

It seemed that Kakashi had fallen back asleep, though Sakura detected a hint of color in his skin that hadn't been there before, undoubtedly the result of Tsunade's medical jutsu. Sakura had already made up her mind that she would spend the rest of the day with her mission partner, since the rest of her boys were out on missions of their own. She set about unpacking her knapsack, neatly stacking the precious books on Kakashi's bedside table. The fact that Sakura was allowed to touch them at all was a testament to exactly how much Kakashi trusted his medic.

The first time he had landed in the hospital after a mission with Sakura, Kakashi's first request to his teammate upon waking was for his beloved books. Sakura was so relieved they both survived that she went and retrieved the books without question. When she returned to Kakashi, books in hand, both of them started at the realization of what she'd just done. Kakashi dismissed it quickly, figuring that if he could trust her to put his vital organs back where they belonged, he could trust her with Icha Icha. Sakura, on the other hand, obsessed over the request for weeks, worrying about his clear lapse in sanity. Finally, after much deliberation, she decided to let it go and not push her luck by touching them ever ever again.

Sakura pulled two heavy, ruby-red pomegranates out of her backpack with one hand and drew out a thick medical journal with the other. She placed the fruit gently by the books, stretched her back, and settled as best she could into the uncomfortable plastic hospital chair. After one article she, known for her deep concentration, was reading and re-reading the same sentence without any comprehension.

With a sigh and a snap, Sakura closed her journal and stuffed it back in her backpack. Kakashi continued to sleep, his unconsciousness filling Sakura with nervous energy that she attempted to dissipate by violently tapping her toes. When this didn't suffice, she alternated between jumping up to pace the small room and shifting ceaselessly in her seat. Midway through getting up, her eyes fell on to the pomegranates on the end table and she impulsively grabbed one. Kakashi's eye cracked open at the subtle bitted smell and quiet sound of the fruit's skin ripping open. Sakura cocked an eyebrow at him and continued to methodically pull the tough skin away from the delicate interior. He continued to watch her as she peeled. She broke the seeds from their thin membrane a few at a time, wordlessly handing them to Kakashi, who ate them gratefully, his back turned to Sakura.

After creating a pile of debris, Sakura reached the last chunk of seeds in the fruit and hesitated a moment in handing Kakashi a piece, opting instead to eat it herself. Sakura's mouth puckered involuntarily and Kakashi, masked again, gave a quiet laugh. She handed him the last of the seeds with a wry smile. Their hands brushed briefly and though Kakashi remained stoic, Sakura's face and neck dusted lightly with pink and she hurriedly busied herself with closing her knapsack and brushing invisible dirt off her skirt. She left in a hurry, leaving a slightly bewildered Kakashi with a pile of pomegranate skin and no companion. Sakura spent the last two days of her leave downing trees on the training field and aggressively shopping with Ino, all in a futile attempt to get Kakashi's touch - and the spark of electricity that had jolted her - out of her head. Kakashi, meanwhile, lay in bed and tried – unsuccessfully – to not obsess by reading and re-reading Icha Icha.


	2. Chapter 2

I wrote more of the thing. I hope it doesn't suck.

* * *

Tsunade retired from her role as Hokage with as little fanfare as possible, simply announcing one day that she was stepping down and taking over at the hospital as head medic. Three days later, the Council of Elders and the daimyou unanimously elected Hatake Kakashi as the Nanadaime Hokage, passing Naruto over for the last time. Though he sulked in private, Kakashi took on the robes with as little fanfare as his predecessor had left them. Shizune agreed to stay on as his interim assistant, and Kakashi had never been so grateful for someone's existence since Sakura shoved all of his organs back into his abdomen and healed him by the sheer force of her formidable will.

After a month, Shizune began gently reminding Kakashi that her position was temporary, that she fully intended to return to the medic-nin life, and that Tsunade's other apprentice was well-versed in the workings of the Hokage's office. A week of her nagging produced the desired effect in the newly minted Nanadaime. The next morning, he called Sakura to Hokage Tower. She appeared five minutes early in full mission gear with her bag already packed, clearly expecting one of her usual assignments as team medic. Kakashi, hoping for five minutes' quiet, was peeling a fresh pomegranate and was taken aback by her eagerness. He began to peel faster as he tried to explain what was going on.

"Hokage-sama, you had a mission assignment?"

"Mah, no, I actually had a favor to ask of you."

"Anything for my old teammate, you know that."

"Well…ah…it's a long-term assignment."

Sakura's carefully cultivated calm façade began to crack as her impatience with Kakashi grew. Her eyes flashed and she slammed a fist down on the table.

"Out with it, sempai! I have rounds in less than an hour and Tsunade will have my head if I'm late."

The Hokage shifted uncomfortably, snack forgotten, behind his desk, which he now realized was in danger of becoming a pile of splinters no matter how he tried to mollify the increasingly angry kunoichi.

"Would you be my assistant?"

Surprise and shock registered on Sakura's face before she had the chance to rearrange her features into something more neutral. She cracked a half-hearted smile and joked, "Shizune-sempai had enough, hmm?" She reflexively stole a few seeds from the forgotten fruit on Kakashi's desk, grimacing slightly as she ate them. Kakashi's returning smile was equally weak.

"Yeah, so what do you say?"

"Kakashi, I have an emergency room to run and regular missions. You know I can't do that."

With that, the formidable medic turned on her heel and disappeared in a flurry of her namesake blossoms. Kakashi sat stupefied for a moment before picking up the next scroll in the massive pile on his desk.

The next day, a courier caught up to Sakura as she was browsing the marketplace for that night's dinner. Slightly out of breath, the obviously freshly-minted genin's voice shook as he delivered his message.

"Haruno-san, the Hokage wishes you to meet him in his office. It's urgent."

Sakura, after almost 10 years as Kakashi's teammate, knew better than to fall for that trick – she would just end up wasting an hour or two outside Kakashi's office, waiting for him to show up. After buying some fruit and vegetables and browsing the newest kimono offerings for Shikamaru's upcoming wedding, Sakura meandered over to Kakashi's office and caught up with him as she jogged up the stairs. He matched her pace up the stairs and as they rounded the corner to the last flight, Sakura turned to Kakashi and tried her hardest to swallow her anxiety. In a feeble attempt to cover her shaking hands, she dug in her knapsack for the peace offering she had brought, wondering all the while how she could handle dangerous enemies and difficult surgeries but not this.

When they arrived in the Hokage's office, Kakashi went straight for the relative safety of the space behind his desk and immediately began to rifle through the debris of scrolls, letters, and various tchotchkes that seemed to gravitate towards the desk. Triumphantly, he pulled out a scroll marked with an S-class seal from a particularly precarious stack, pomegranates temporarily forgotten.

"You're being assigned to ANBU team 12 as a temporary field medic since Hana is out of commission."

Sakura shuddered as she remembered the night that the young ANBU medic was carried into her emergency room by her scared, grim-faced teammates. She had stood over the girl for over 10 hours, repairing damaged organs and carefully removing every drop of slow-acting poison from her bloodstream. Tsunade had beamed with pride when an exhausted Sakura reported to her the next morning that Hana had pulled through. More than two weeks after her injuries, the promising field medic was still recovering under Shizune's watchful eye.

"I expect the mission to last three months, maybe more. It's Mist and it's sensitive, so you never really know…"

Kakashi trailed off and stared into space for a moment before snapping back to reality. He crinkled his eye and handed Sakura the scroll.

"Be careful, Sakura-chan."

She leaned across the desk and lightly punched him in the arm, rolling her eyes. Excited and bittersweet over the prospect of what would be her last long-haul mission for quite a while, Sakura left to pack her bag and Kakashi began to pensively peel his fruit.

Three months became four and four became five. Though he was exquisitely accustomed to making Sakura wait for him to return from missions, Kakashi was as a loss for what to do while waiting for her to return from the field. Naruto had become a daily, annoying fixture in his office, growing less tolerable and more frantic every day that Sakura failed to return. By the fourth month of her mission, Naruto had become so irritating out of worry for his teammate that he was "randomly" assigned to a long courier mission with Sai, his usual mission partner. Kakashi would have sworn up and down that the fact that it was a mission to the outer reaches of Wind Country was a sheer coincidence. He would have also sworn that the hour or so he spent every day skulking around the gate was an important, highly classified part of his duty as Hokage. With no Naruto around to make noise or attract attention, Kakashi's behavior, odd even for him, incited no questions – at least, not to his face.

After six tense months, Sakura and her team returned, battered and exhausted but _alive_, to Konoha. Kakashi managed to convince himself that the single relieved tear that escaped his eye was the result of a bit of dust thrown in the air when Naruto burst jubilantly into his office that afternoon, breathlessly hollering "She's back, 'ttebayo!" and subsequently sprinting off.

Kakashi took a moment to collect himself and stretch his back before walking to the gate, willing himself to not break into a run. When he spied Sakura down the path – headed straight for a warm shower, no doubt – Kakashi gave a lazy wave and jammed his hands in his pockets, shoulders significantly less tense than they were that morning. Sakura waved back, her exhaustion palpable even from a distance.

Kakashi was barely able to keep the note of panic out of his voice when he asked where on earth she'd been and did she know how long she'd been gone, hmm? Sakura just gave a weak, sad smile and shook her head. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"The mission was completed as specified, Hokage-sama," Sakura said evenly.

Kakashi nodded and turned away, heading in the direction of his desk, piled high with a week's backlog of correspondence, forms, proposals, and jutsu.

"Sempai!" Kakashi turned sharply at the abrupt sound of his teammate's voice.

"Dinner tomorrow night at 4."

He nodded in assent and began towards Hokage tower again. Sakura hoped against hope that two hours would be enough time for the Copy-nin to get lost on the path of life and still get there while the food was hot. Inviting Naruto, Sai, and Yamato could wait. A hot shower, a good soak, and a neglected book were calling her battered body.

Ever-studious, Sakura was filled with good intentions after her long bath and lowbrow novel, but one page into her advanced chakra neurosurgery techniques textbook and she was down for the count, face smushed gracelessly into the pillow. She bolted awake at noon the next day, hours later than she normally slept, print from the abandoned textbook faintly visible on her cheek.

She leapt out of bed, far more rested than usual, and bolted to the shower. After getting ready in record time, Sakura walked purposefully to the market, weighing her options for dinner. Thankfully, her boys were easy to please, mostly interested in the companionship and screwing around, just grateful that there was food they didn't have to cook or pay for.

Ramen was a fairly easy decision – she had the fixings for shio broth at home already and fresh noodles were always available at the market. Satisfied with her choice, Sakura finished her shopping quickly, throwing two plump pomegranates and a package of chocolate truffles in her basket, figuring that Kakashi and Sai would appreciate the gesture.

Sakura hummed tunelessly and contentedly as she bustled around her small kitchen, simmering broth and chopping vegetables. Sai showed up first, before anything was ready, as if drawn to her kitchen by the delicious smells wafting out of the window. He sat quietly at her kitchen table and drew what soon revealed itself to be a candid portrait of Sakura cooking. Not long after he finished, Naruto burst through the door in a flurry of chaotic energy, rattling the windows. Yamato showed up in Naruto's wake, quiet and polite as ever.

Dinner was served a few minutes later, just as Kakashi languidly wandered in, timing impeccable for once. The boys bantered as Sakura dished up steaming bowls of soup to Naruto's boisterous, bordering on obnoxious, delight. The chatter continued long after the meal was finished and forgotten dishes were strewn about the kitchen. Around midnight, after several glasses of shochu, Sai not-so-subtly kicked Naruto hard in the shins, Sakura and Kakashi oblivious and lost in deep conversation about the effects of the Sharingan on medical ninjutsu.

"Naruto! We need to go, remember? The mission's in six hours," Sai said a little too loudly, shooting a sidelong glance at the Hokage, still conversing animatedly with Sakura, a half-eaten pomegranate in his hand.

Naruto jumped out of his seat, unaware of Sai's unsubtle staring.

"That's right, 'ttebayo! I almost forgot! Bye, Sakura-chan! Bye, Kakashi-sensei!"

Naruto bounded out the door without a second thought, and without noticing his teammates' unusual closeness. Sai trailed after and gave an overly bright smile as he bid Sakura and Kakashi goodbye. They barely noticed their teammates' departure, and Sakura mumbled a cursory goodbye as she reached glowing fingertips to Kakashi's temple.

She closed her eyes in deep concentration for a long moment and ran her searching chakra gently through Kakashi's system. The glow faded from her fingers and Sakura let her hand fall, lost in thought. All at once, she jumped up, slamming her hands on the table and startling Kakashi.

"Wait here! Don't move! I need to check something," Sakura ordered.

She bolted out of the kitchen and toward her groaning bookshelves. Kakashi signed and resigned himself to his fate. He returned to eating his pomegranate quietly and watched as Sakura excitedly raced back with three heavy tomes. She plunked the books down on the table and dragged her chair next to Kakashi's.

"Kakashi! I think I've sorted out how to keep you from having so much pain every time you use the Mangekyou."

She pulled out a textbook enticingly titled "Chakra Interactions in the Nervous System" and began to flip through it. Kakashi was somewhat startled to hear his name without the customary suffix, as Sakura was typically polite to a fault, but she kept chattering about chakra and the optic nerve, clearly unaware of her oversight. He tuned back into what she was saying just in time.

"So, if we stimulate your optic nerve with the right kind of chakra, that will cause it to widen and there will be more tissue to take the burden. Obito's chakra will be much less irritating that way, and you'll be able to have more damage to your neurons before starting to have any kind of deterioration…but I'll have to be careful not to generate a tumor…" Sakura trailed off, mind working in overdrive.

Kakashi instinctively leaned forward towards her, mirroring her engaged posture. It occurred to him that she had never looked so beautiful as she did then, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling with the excitement of a new medical theory. And, he thought, she wore confidence in her own powers well.

"…Kakashi?" Sakura's voice snapped him out of his brief reverie.

"Would you like some tea? It helps me think, and I want to figure this out sooner rather than later."

Kakashi realized that he would be at Sakura's for a few hours yet, until her brilliant mind was satisfied with a solution, and crunched a few more pomegranate seeds. Sakura didn't even bother trying to catch him eating with his mask down.

"No thank you, Sakura," he said, and she got up and busied herself with the teapot.

As she brewed her favorite brand of lemon tea, Kakashi picked up his bowl of fruit in one hand and Sakura's medical textbooks in the other and made his way to her living room. He contented himself with another few pomegranate seeds and the copy of Icha Icha that had materialized in his hands. Sakura set her tea on the counter next to the stack of books and sat heavily next to Kakashi, almost touching his knee. She pulled out a textbook and began to read and make notes, occasionally making an interested hum. After a few minutes, she sat up and crossed her legs, allowing her knee to rest gently on Kakashi's thigh. His good eye widened almost imperceptibly in shock but he stayed where he was. Sakura put her head in her hands and sighed deeply.

"Sakura. What is it?" Kakashi tried to keep his voice steady despite the current he could feel coming from where they were touching. Sakura made a frustrated noise and ran her hands through her hair.

"Here. Eat something. You know, you don't have to figure this out right now, I'll be just as bad tomorrow." Kakashi proffered a handful of pomegranate seeds, the last of what he'd been eating with dinner. Sakura's eyes glinted dangerously but she accepted the food and ate thoughtfully. Kakashi hadn't realized he was holding his breath until Sakura smiled and he exhaled.

"You know, you've been eating these as long as I can remember, and this is the first time I've liked them." Sakura sighed and carefully laid her head on Kakashi's shoulder.

"Twenty-two years old and you finally like fruit, hm?" Kakashi's eye crinkled gently and she relaxed against him. She grabbed the textbook and her pen and curled up a little closer, instantly absorbed in her studies and problem-solving. After a few minutes of silence, Kakashi moved his arm, at this point filled with pins and needles, and Sakura looked askance at him. Without breaking her gaze, he slipped his arm out from under her weight and wrapped it snugly around her shoulder. A blush began to spread on Sakura's cheeks and she raised an eyebrow at him but made no attempt to move.

"This is more comfortable, don't you think?" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head nervously with his free hand. Sakura shifted slightly and returned to her reading, silently appreciating how calming his touch was.

Sooner than she would have liked, Sakura drifted off to sleep as Kakashi continued to read. He didn't dare get up as he knew she got little enough sleep as it was, but began plotting how to leave without disturbing her. Once satisfied with his solution, he began to maneuver the sleeping kunoichi but paused with her in his arms.

Kakashi pulled down his mask and let it pool at this throat. He took a long look at Sakura, still sleeping, and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Sakura's eyes snapped open and she made a strangled little sound, then froze.

They stared at each other, paralyzed, for a long moment, unable to break the silence. Before she quite realized what she was doing, Sakura began to move toward Kakashi just as he resolved to do the same.

They kissed tentatively, almost awkwardly, and reeled with the heady emotion of a line not crossed, but obliterated. Kakashi stood up in a rush and stumbled backwards. Instinctively he took Sakura's proffered hands and learned forward to kiss her again on the forehead. She gave a little smile.

"It's late, Kakashi," Sakura murmured.

"I know." He sighed. "I should go." He pulled his mask up again and walked to the door. Sakura followed. They stood by her door, Kakashi appearing implacable and Sakura using every ounce of her honed control to keep her emotions in check. She kissed him quickly over his mask and stepped back to allow him through the door.

"Good night, Sakura," he said, and left, closing the door behind him. She locked the door and walked to her bedroom, methodically changing into her pajamas. She sat heavily on the bead and wished she'd asked him to stay.


End file.
